


Color My World

by minhyunbin



Category: JBJ (Band), NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, M/M, More relationships and characters to be added as story progresses, Romance, Romantic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 18:18:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13980738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minhyunbin/pseuds/minhyunbin
Summary: The hues of this world is black and white and the range between them. They range from the subtle hint of grey of the newspapers he was holding to the phantom grey in the rumbling of the late afternoon skies. There was white in the form of his clean walls and his own pale skin, and then there was the raven black, dark as his hair, dark as midnight skies outside his windows. The subtlety of the color changes in between them formed lines and gave shape, and Minhyun had learned to observe and appreciate the differences in grey that separates window from walls, and ink from pencil.That is, until Hyunbin appears, and colors started to fill his world.Alternatively: a soulmates AU where the world is monochrome until one meets their soulmate.





	1. forewords

**Author's Note:**

> Just a random inspiration as I was working on another short series. I've always wanted to do a soulmate au but I've never quite been able to visualize the kind of world that fits this two until now, so I'm excited to jump into this idea. Hope you guys would like this, and as always, feel free to leave me comments! — yours sincerely, Sonagi ♡

( **monochrome**  –

" using only black, white, and grey, or using only one color: "

 _they say when the world was created,_  
mankind feasted on the colors near to extinction  
upon seeing the disgrace of these creatures,  
god removed the biggest blessing of the earth,  
and parted men into two.

 _they were made to find their other halves_  
after roaming mother earth for years to come,  
and only thereafter will they ever receive  
the blessings of love, and colors of life.

_and such was the way of their world._

– **colors** )


	2. monochrome

As a child, Minhyun was always fascinated by the world. 

Their world was a series of black and white and all shades of grey. The differences in hues and saturation gave birth to what was known as 'shapes' and 'sizes', and these angularity inked out lines of definition that drew the canvas of their society. Patterns became a source of differentiation, printed onto clothes, as fonts and words became a strong source of understanding to this monochrome view for those who have yet to experience the blessing of _love_.

And he basked in the stories about love from his mother, who read to him the many variations from storybooks to sharing real life experiences at bedtime. She would tell him all about the girl who saw colors for the first time that kindled her spirit and lived happily forever after; and then there's the story about an old man who watched his world wither away to darkness once again in grieve over the passing of his wife, one that brought the young him to tears. His favourite was the 'Princess and Her Colors', where a prince invited princesses across the vast lands to visit his ball, and the one who brought to him the sight of the marvelous world would be his bride and the future queen.

( When he grew up, he realized that it's because he's a romantise at heart, in a world which only groomed his desire and expectation for the perfect soulmate. Because this world is romantic on it's own, with promises of the unknown that could come to him at any moment, who would tell him the ending but never spoil the exploration thereafter. )

His curiousity with colors started young, when his parents gifted him with a set of color pencils. They were expensive, he knew, because the gift of colors was given not to everyone in this world. There were some who lost them along the way because they couldn't cherish what they had in sight. There were some who never had the chance to see the world in a new light, because they crossed paths with their partners one too few times to make the right connection. And there were some, born with this ability graced upon them, rare but true. And it is only these selected people that could enjoy the extravagance of painting in their life, to use these expensive material and create stories across canvas.

Minhyun once saw someone at work along the streets, easel out and a palette in hand. His mother had tugged onto his much smaller and outreached hands when the boy's interest was too piqued that he was rooted to the spot, only to give up with a soft sigh. Always observant of his surroundings, it was not the first time Minhyun had questions to ask, needed time to see, and even if they were running late for an afternoon lunch with his father, his father could wait. And the young boy fired away - head tilting into the direction of the artist as he asked.

"What is he doing? What are all those tubes over there? Are there colors on them?"

His mother would then answer them slowly, sharing about the easel and the brushes, and what painting meant. She then told her son about the vibrant colors that he could only gasp and guess, eyes flickering between the stranger and his mother in curiosity and excitement till she finished speaking. Even without the sight of colors, Minhyun could still see the contrasting lines drawing out the scene in front of him. It was amazing, like a photo within a photo reflected into his own eyes. And he started wondering just when he could have his turn too, because he wanted to paint the trees and windows and the fluffy clouds hanging over them.

"I wish I can see colors soon," he had added, eyes transfixed on the artist as his mother led him away. He did not turn away until they rounded a corner, with the painter disappearing from their view. 

A few days later, he received the set of color pencils. There were twelve of them in a metal box, one that made a clanking sound whenever he opened and clipped them shut. Mother had sat him down as he looked up from his book, smiling back with the gentle smile, before blooming into a full beam when she announced her gift. These color pencils still wouldn't light up his world, but father had carved out the names of the basic colors, or at least, in a way that was synonyms for their son to understand. There was a blue pencil by the name of 'sky', and a red with the name 'apples'; Minhyun ran his fingers along each of these words slowly, carefully, and his mother would teach him how to draw the basis of the world.

He was never a good artist, with wonky lines and ovals instead of circles, but he never stopped coloring the piece of paper. He enjoyed the changes and the rise and bumps of the paper as lead glossed over them in varying shades of the monochromatic scale. Eventually, his parents would take turns drawing on the sketchbook a myriad of things, from every day items to brief outlines of a person. Neither of them were great artistes, but Minhyun was always excited to watch them work, excited to be able to fill in the spaces by the time they were done. He would use the sky pencil to fill the outline of a mug, because he imagined the sky to be a warm, bright color. The color 'leaves' was painted onto the outline of a bicycle.

And many, many more.

Minhyun first saw a flash of colors when he was eight, skipping along the theme park with his parents beside him, a reward for aceing his studies over the semester. It was a burst of senses, the tress with black bark roared to life with shades of brown, streaming down from it's lush green leaves as they danced in the wind, like an open tap with running water. Their pathway, a shade of pewter, rolled out like a red carpet with a maroon splash across the hexagonal tiles. The elephant-shaped balloon tied around his wrist was of a light blue, one that matched the clear skies beyond that of his vision. He still remembered the shirt he worn that day, a dazzling color of pink matches with navy blue shorts, hand-picked by his mother. 

And in the next few seconds, it began to disappear, fading away like a mirage, all too quick for him to grasp besides the utter of a small gasp. 

It was too late by the time he explained his story, fumbling over words with the thump of his heart, partly anxious and partly amazed. There was no way to trace the source of his outburst, as it could have been anyone passing by - a child, a teen, maybe even an adult. Male, female, either or neither. There were no rules to the alignment when it comes to defining a soulmate, made even more complex for a child's mind to understand too, so eventually the quick sweep around the area with him dragging his parents along the path he came from was rendered unfruitful.

Young Minhyun became more aware of his colors that day on, his color pencils with engravings never once leaving his sides as he traced his small fingers along the names, desperately trying to remember how colors looked - _felt_ \- as he laid in bed, waiting for the next time where he would hopefully see a wave of colors pouring into his world, and the person behind it. Growing up, he soon had less time coloring than he had to study, reading black and white notes and keeping up with athletic sports and after-school activities. But he would never forget how blue the skies were in that split moment, how green leaves actually were as he looked at his color pencils, worn down so much that barely the first few initials of the words could be seen. 

There were still his treasure, and one day, he hoped that he could match up the sketchbook with actual colors again.

* * *

"Minhyun-ah, are you coming to the meeting tonight?"

High school became the last few years of absolute madness. There was little time to romanticise the possibilities of colors when school work weighed down on his neck. In between meeting new new friends and more school work, the fairy-tales of the past was set aside for a brief moment. Instead of children's fables and color pencils, Minhyun picked up pens and highlighters, reciting literature and poems with few sneak peeks of the latest thriller series by a Japanese author. The old thoughts only had the time to squeeze past the other more pressing matters when he was accepted for university, a boy with big dreams for his future in penmanship shedding his geeky glasses and school uniform. 

Even so, his luck with colors remained the same, with no difference except that his memories of the sky had been fading. Sometimes, Minhyun would look up above him to the layer of greys, wondering just when would he finally see some sort of change? 

"No, I want to finish this book I'm reading."

The raven smiled at his friend, shaking his head slightly upon uttering the excuse. Since middle school, he had noticed that more and more people are gathering in pairs, and the oddest thing about it all, was that not all of them saw colors in their world. Soon, he came to realise that love between soulmate might be one-in-a-million, but there were other sort of emotions that was associated with it. There was the need and craving of skinship, the sort that include holding hands and sharing kisses even in the grey-scale void. There were people who just liked being in pairs, shifting from lover to lover, hoping that perhaps, this way, they could find them faster. Minhyun found this absurd, because he knew just how colors came to him, and the only way to that was to wait. 

So wait he shall.

Jonghyun had commented on how that was weird and nearly defying nature, the same-aged peer he knew since middle school was the exact same child he had terrorized in the park when he was eight-years-old. In Minhyun's defense, he had been crying and yelling, asking if Jonghyun saw any colors, to which he had stammered a 'yes'; however, as it turns out, Jonghyun suffered a deficiency that resulted in his permanent visage of ( what he dubbed as the ultimate evil color ) red, and yes, a color to Minhyun's curt question. But as the colors faded back to Minhyun's original world while nothing else changed for the other, they both knew that they were far from being a soulmate.

Yet, fate had plans, because even if Jonghyun wasn't his soulmate, they were great friends who went through a bulk of their growing years together. They used to joke that they were each other's 'Seoul mate', where they first met as children despite coming from Busan and Gyeonggi-do respectively, and converging in Seoul once more when they moved for their studies. 

Yes, fate had plans.

And Minhyun liked to believe in that. But even someone as stubborn as he would waver sometimes, when he's watching the skies outside his windows in the middle of a sleepless night, wondering just when would his soulmate arrive. Because if lust was a concept he couldn't grasp, then loneliness was a concept he could, and he felt it - the way it rattles his soul with empty echoes as he laid in the chilly winter bed alone, or having a book as his only companion when he went to a cafe, people around him grouped together in pairs with excited chatter, a handbook of colors in their hands. 

Part worried and part envious, the boy would fill up his journal with scrawls of color pencils, copying poems in various colors. Sky became a synonym with some of the most mellow yet calming pieces, while 'sun' stood for majestic silence; 'paper', a color that however faint it looked, still managed to differentiate itself from the actual paper when he scrawled about getting lost among the crowd, and 'charcoal', the harshest color, was used to paint the worded world of strong emotions and anguished cries.

Another year went by.

Third year was a busy year, the last of which he got to play before school work piled up and more real life responsibilities came in. He took to freelancing as a form of adult-ing, earning allowance with stories conjured from the mind and adapted from those that he read. Colors never do come, _yet_ , but in his world of writing, there wasn't a definite need for it. At least, that's what he told himself to feel better, and better it felt.

What he did not have in the sense of colorism, he had the sense of smell. Spring held an air of freshness in the air, and a little bit of floral scent for some reason. Perhaps it's got to do with the floating petals in the air, blown from all directions on his first day at school. Jonghyun and Mingi were both late, so he left the dorms earlier and without them, hoping a walk could inspire him to do something more, something else. There were papers to submit and work to be done, but he was in no hurry with the accompanying new semester. Birds chirped to the wind and fellow schoolmate's voices became a mumbling in his ears that he choose to preceed his soft hummings with each bounce of a step he took. A piece of petal fell on the tip of his nose as he scrunched his face, shaking it off, and he took the time to watch it gently cascade down the heights onto the floor.

Like the press of a button or the flush of a seasoned poker player with his deck of cards, a miracle happened.

The dark dark streets lit up, a weird color he couldn't put to his lips invaded his sense. Memories of an eight-year-old imposed in current time, and he watched as the trees with white-ish petals fluttered around him. There were blasts of colors, brighter and more prominent than before as his world erupted in colors, like a volcano spewing lava or rolling currents up the shore. Standing alone, stunned with eyes wide, he walked along the path with colors as a guiding light, and then he picked up pace.

**He ran.**

He ran through the people and pockets of crowd, his friend's voice ringing behind him was well ignored. He ran, half skipping as he mumbled his 'excuse me', squeezing through any space he could in align to the unfolding colors, a scroll that never seemed to reach the end. It looked like someone had rolled a ball of yarn, letting it run amok as its owner hurried to chase after it's tail, following the thread through the school campus. 

In the past, he would wonder what he would be thinking when it all happens. _What would the person look like? What would they be wearing? How would we recognize each other? Do we have to yell out a name?_

When it happened, the only thoughts that came to mind, was 'run'.

This time, he's not letting his colors slipped through the cracks of his fingers again.

Eyes roamed the crowd of excited new entrants, faces that seemed familiar and yet, not so. There was no one else nearly as frantic as him, hair tousled and messy from the early Spring winds and all that running. His cheeks were flushed, something he couldn't quite understand until months later when he would look at himself in the mirror, and his breath labored. No one in the crowd seemed to be searching for him, and the colors had stopped running, his whole new world now opened and complete as he moved slowly, steps inching forwards until _he_ came into view.

A tall man, even taller than him, taking in deep breaths as he looked around. His skin was pale with just a touch of faint color, and his messy hair a mimicry of his own. He was wearing a sweater, the color of his pale skin that contrasted deeply with the dark coat. He stepped closer, and their eyes met. There was a pause as the world seemingly slowed down around them, wrapping them in a bubble of their own, subconscious moving feet shaving off the distance between them before they finally stopped, tips of their toes nearly touching. Minhyun blinked, mind drawing a blank as they both looked at each other, then away at the sudden close proximity. The elder boy did not need to know colors to understand the shyness coming from the younger, the same emotion was coursing under his skin as he felt, more than saw, his cheeks heating up.

"I- My name is Minhyun. Hwang, Hwang Minhyun."

Lips pursed nervously into a fine line, he swallowed as he waited. Rationale thoughts were coming through, finally, and he wondered if he should have went for a proper greeting instead of blurting out his name. Or maybe he should ask in a proper manner, because what if he got the wrong person after all? Before he could burst out in a series of panic ramblings, the stranger had smiled. And that alone, radiated with warmth brighter than the midday glow, and if Minhyun could make that feeling, _that emotion_ , into a color pencil to carry with him whenever he goes in case of a rainy day, he would.

He replied.

" _Hyunbin. My name is Kwon Hyunbin_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ta daa! for those following my twitter, you might have heard that i'm working on a special soulmates au and this is it! there's at least 1 more or even 2 more parts to minhyunbin's main story, and i am looking to write (1) jbaek and (2) nielwink/ongniel/2park special chapters as well. i make no promises on the special chapters however, we shall see hehe ;; please leave lots of comments and i will see you soon~ as always, feel free to visit my [twitter](https://twitter.com/mhb_sng) and [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/mhb_sng) ♡sng
> 
> p.s; I've been writing for free and will continue to do so, if you're feeling generous today, why not [donate a coffee](ko-fi.com/sonagi)?^^


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